In the picture below you can see this blog directly.  In this picture you can see this very blog directly where the posts are immediate but are moved down the page as new posts are entered.  In this case, the links are also on a menu on top but it makes it difficult to have permanent information on the page.  They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of having a static page is that you can put up links and information that is permanent and immediately visible to the viewer.  The disadvantage is that many people including myself are too lazy to dig into a site to see what is there.  People go to a page and lose interest real fast resulting in shorter visits and less repeat visitors.  The advantage of having the blog directly is that a post is available directly as soon as the visitor arrives.  As new posts are added, it moves the old ones down.  It does not have the permanent links readily available.

I have had a web site since 1996 so I have used both.  My own experience has shown my web site gets more traffic with the blog directly than when there is a static page.  I use both the statistics tool of my hosting provider along with Google Analytics.  They are pretty close in their measurements and are in agreement that a blog that gets regular posts tend to get more traffic than a static page.  The traffic is many times that of a static page.  This is the reason that I pay extra to be able to use a blog as opposed to just having a static page.  I am curious if anyone else has had similar or different results.  On one hand I would like to have a static page linking to the blog but I have found that many times people will not even waste their time clicking on the link to go to the blog.

On the other hand I have found that people according to my web traffic stats, a lot of my traffic is due to search engine results whether it be Google, Yahoo, or Bing.  My stats often show what the visitor was searching for when they clicked on my link.  This being the case, it would not seem to matter which choice I decided to go with because most visitors are not arriving by directly entering the URL directly.  Most visits are not on the front page but rather one of the links deep in the page that were found on a search engine.  My site really does not have a lot of information that would be useful to the general public yet I seem to be getting enough traffic to keep me on a mid level plan.  Having a blog really is a lot of work because a person may not always be inspired to write a big story.  This is why I have Twitter imported on the right side because I can still post small messages with my phone so that it still shows that I am around even when I am too busy to post on the blog.

I have also considered changing the domain to something that is not my full name so that I could have liberty to speak more freely.  Also I have considered using one of those “.me” or dot me domains since this is a personal site.  I am hesitant to make any of these changes simply because the search engines have already crawled the site and have become searchable.  The other side is that when you use your own name to post online, you are visible to all and not at liberty to speak the way you may want on a subject.    Whatever I do, it will be done before July 1, 2010 because that is when my domain expires. If I change it, I will post links on this domain showing where the page has gone.  I am leaning toward not moving it unless someone feels that it would be a better idea. Unfortunately my hosting service has gone up in price to make it $220.00 to renew for three more years.  This includes the domain renewal and hosting.  It has doubled since I joined them a few years ago.  I will not mention them by name because other than the increase in price, I have been very satisfied with their service.  Keep posted and I will let you know what I decide.

To clarify what a DDoS attack is and how it works I will try to explain.  A malicious person will find open computers around the world and upload a “bot”, or a program that runs automatically at set times.  This person will upload these bots onto other computers as they find them open.  These bots will ping a site continuously from many different victim computers sort of like what happens when you are access a web site.  These attempts to reach the site are at such a high volume that it takes up all of their bandwidth preventing legitimate users from being able to access the site.  When I say bandwidth, I am referring to a sort of a pipeline and its size.  The larger the size of pipeline, the more data that can be sent through the pipe.  If all the contents of the pipe are being consumed, then nothing else is left for anyone else.

Twitter still rules the social networking world despite what you may hear from other sites.  The reason I say this is because if you actually go to Friendfeed,  you will find that at least 50% of the traffic on there started by a Twitter post.  Of course from there, people will comment on Friendfeed.  The same can be said for Facebook because most of the traffic that I see are originally posted as Twitter.  Most of these sites have their own features that are very useful but again they depend on the traffic that is generated by Twitter.  With each news story that comes out putting down Twitter, they continue to grow.  In fact their growth is exponential with each story that comes out.  This is probably a result of people’s desire to follow the crowd.  In fact just this morning I un-followed 500 people/bots/strangers.  I will admit that I love the ability to get news from Twitter in real time even before it is on the news.  I can find out when a roll over accident is on the freeway before it is even broadcast on television.

So unless someone can come up with a tool that is so easy to use through short messaging system (SMS) they will continue to rule.  With smart phones becoming more prevalent people can update a news story directly from the site.  Instantly millions of people will know within minutes.  In some cases these posts actually result in the media’s attention instead of the other way around.  Having Twitter is empowering to the individual.  As it has been seen recently, there were individuals in Iran that were posting to the world the violence that was going on.  These Twitter posts were fed into many social networking sites and also to the news media.  In fact every major news entity in the United States has a Twitter page.    I know some people that use them just to follow news sites so that when something happens, they get a message to their phones.  It is inevitable that at some point a new technology will come out and unseat Twitter as the major social tool but for now they remain on top.  I will continue to follow these technologies and see new breakthrough tools as they develop.

The reason that I did this was because I have found over time there are robots that are automatically connecting to users and posting spam. Secondly you get followers that search for certain political key words and then follow you.  Sometimes they agree and sometimes they disagree.  In either case, I do not wish to be arguing politics on Twitter. This is particularly irritating and so I usually try to un-follow them fast.  One of the strategies that has worked for me is when I purposely post something that I know will be offensive to certain political groups.  When they begin to lash out at me then I know who to un-follow.  It has been pretty effective so far.

In a given day, I will get 10 or so new followers that I do not even know.  It is clear these followers are not real people but robots because when you look at their profile they are following over 1,000 people and only 20 are following back.  Also they only have less than 100 updates.  Anytime someone has only a fraction of updates compared to how many people they are following, that is a pretty good give away.  There are some people that I genuinely enjoy hearing from on Twitter.

From my cell phone I can send a text message “on” or “off” to turn notifications on or off to my cell phone.  This way if I have to be in a meeting I can just send “off” and the notifications stop until I turn them back on.  Lately I have been sending “off” and it has not been taking effect right away.  In fact in some cases it does not take effect for more than four hours.  This is completely unacceptable.  Even putting my phone on vibrate does not help when I am getting continuous flows of messages when I am in a meeting.

Another thing that it does is keeps me from getting the messages from those that I do want to talk to.  When I am in a meeting for an hour and a half and I come out with 20+ Twitter messages on my phone, I tend to ignore them.  When someone in my family sends me a text message it gets ignored because of the endless messages coming in after I told it to stop.  A couple nights ago it was doing this and I got so mad that I sent “off” over and over and over again where I probably sent “off 20+ times.  The messages kept coming.  When I got up for work in the morning I had 40+ messages from Twitter and most of them were my “off” confirmations that I sent telling it to stop.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see this would get old fast.  Tonight it is doing it again.  I have already sent “off” a dozen times and I am STILL getting messages.  Am I the only one that is having this problem?  Unlike many people I use the “on” and “off” commands regularly because I have to work or sleep.  I leave my phone on 24 hours a day because most people I talk to call me on it.  If there is an emergency, that is the number that people will likely call me on so turning off the phone when I go to bed is not an option.

I just submitted a troubleshooting request with Twitter to see if they can find out what is going on.  I hate to cancel my service but if this is what it comes to then I guess I have no choice.  I am approaching 7,000 Twitter messages at this time so I use them quite heavily.  Twitter, fix  this problem!

Looks like Obama made a comment yesterday that said something about you being able to put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig.  Everyone is saying it was aimed at Sarah Palin and I do believe it was though you could make the argument that since he paused before saying it, that it was a spontaneous thought with no calculation behind it.  They fired back and said that McCain had made a similar statement in 2007 when referencing Mrs. Clinton.  And the drama continues.  There is a reason that I usually turn the TV volume down the moment theys begin discussing politics.  Oh well, it is the same thing over and over again.  I will certainly be glad when it is over as you know that it will continue after the election regardless of who wins.

I have been attending a class at work and it has two more days.  It is called Item Unique Identification (IUID).  This is an initiative to assign a unique identification number to every piece of equipment that is either $5,000 or more.  Other items can be added if the program manager deems it necessary to keep track of them.  They used our government identification cards called the common access cards (CAC) as an example of how each of us has an unique number and no other person has this number.  This is reminiscent of Revelation chapter 13, versus 15-18.  I know this is not what it is but sure does give you the creeps.  The government has put this program into place that all items acquired by the government will have these scannable marks beginning 1 Jaunuary 2004.  What gives me the creeps is that never before in history has there been the technology for Revelation 13:15-18 to make sense.  The point being is that the technology is here. The next two days of this class we will be doing practical application.  I must say this overview class that I went to was easily the most boring class I have ever been to.  Razor blades should be issued upon entry for those that just want to end the pain .  Other than this and school there has not been too much going on.

Although I have been frustrated myself, I also am willing to give them some time to fix the issues because they are so unique.  There are times when I am in a meeting and I can quietly follow people’s conversations.  I like the fact that I can post a message that I am doing something and my friends and family can follow what I am doing on my page.  I have run across people that think it is a worthless application while I have come across those that are addicted like myself.  I use Twitter every day when I am out and about.  The very cause of their problems are a result of their popularity.  One thing that may help to fix it would be to limit the number of people you can have as contacts.  I know some people that have more than 20,000 contacts.  Clearly those people are not all friends.  It may help to limit the number that can be sent via SMS but not limith the number of people that you have as contacts.

It is nice being able to have contacts with people that are connected with a certain type of industry but just limit their SMS capability.  Examples of this would be to be connected with Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, etc. because they have connections in the computer industry.  I follow them for this very reason.  It is not that I know them or even agree with them on some things but it is nice to be able to know when new technology related startup companies are around.  This is how we keep up with new things.  In a similar way, if you were interested in other hobbies, you could follow the people that are involved in that industry keeping  you abreast of the newest things in that industry.

I personally cannot express how valuable Twitter can be if done correctly.  On the surface, it seems like a cool little toy but it has become a big part of our lives here.  When I was at the Lake last weekend with no Internet in sight.  I heard from a friend 500 miles away via SMS that they had seen a video of a tornado happening right then in my own state.  I would not have known anything about this being at the lake.  I love the fact that I can notify 100 people of something as soon as it happens via an SMS message and then the news spreads exponentially.  I even read a story about a guy Twittering a message that he had been arrested in Egypt and this resulted in the authorities in our country getting him released.  Because of this, I would suggest that people have some patience with Twitter and understand that the very problems they have been having are due to their popularity.

I will give them some time because this is a worthy cause.  Some of my friends refuse to use Twitter but they will use Facebook.  When I update Twitter, it updates my Facebook status thanks to a Twitter plugin that is in Facebook.  I would encourage everyone to take a breath and have some patience with Twitter and understand the value.  As the owner said yesterday in an interview with Robert Scoble The fact that people are getting angry is a testament of the value they have created.

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Tags: Twitter, tech, technology, Scoble, Robert Scoble, troubles, tweets, SMS

Facebook and Twitter go well together.  If I am out somewhere and post a Twitter message, it automatically updates my Facebook status and shows on the Facebook feed.  There are many programs similar to Twitter like Pownce, or Jaiku but I stick with Twitter because of the SMS.  I do not understand why they all do not include SMS.  Yes, I can go to their mobile page and log in to check the page but that is too much trouble.  Having SMS, allows me to get a message sent “to” me as opposed to having to go search for it.  I can be in a meeting at work, and get a message right to my phone.  This is where putting the phone on silent really helps .  If they did not have any other features, SMS should be included.  Using mobile web is nice but not that convenient.

I think Pownce has a lot of potential but until they get SMS, they will never get a large following like Twitter does.  Myspace has finally included SMS but it is rediculous.  They send you an SMS message telling you that you have a new Myspace message.  Then you have to log into Myspace to check your message.  What a waste!  If i am in a meeting and do not have a computer nearby or do not want to pay extra for the mobile web, then I do not know the what or who the message is from.  If I am in a meeting, then I have to be discreet when checking my messages.  You cannot be very discreet while logging on to the web.

If you are like me and want to stay connected when I am away from home, you will love these toys.  I must say that my favorite is the Twitter/Facebook combination.  So far I think they are light years ahead of the others.  Without question MySpace is the worst.  It is the AOL of social networking.  They will not allow access through other forums and even their SMS is only one way and does nothing more than tell you that you have some information on their website.  Their pages are geared toward teens with hormone overload.  Every page has some girl wearing scantily clad outfits with some provocative comment.  I will admit that one thing that really bothers me about Facebook is the way it automatically requests you to send new applications to all of your friends by default.  When I get those, I always say no.

I am curious to see how this is going to hold up in the long run.  To my knowledge Twitter has no means of generating income so as much as I love it, I am not sure what their long term strategy is but for now it is just a lot of fun.  Oh…one more thing.  I know Microsoft Vista gets a lot of heat for many reasons but one thing that I love about it is the tagging features. For those that have come to love Flickr and its tagging and searching capability, you would love the fact that Microsoft has included this into Vista.  Lets hope this becomes standard and open to other standards.  I like having the ability to tag my photos and have this information embedded into the file itself making it search able.  If you are like me and have thousands of photos on your computer, it is nice to be able to search through them.  The new Office 2007 has the tagging capability as well even if you use the old Windows XP.

If people ever find out about these features and start to use them, it would make their lives a lot easier.  How nice to be able to find a single photo out of a library of 10,000.  I guess I have rambled long enough so I will get this sent.

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Tags: Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, SMS, MySpace, T-Mobile, AOL, Microsoft, Vista, Office 2007, tagging Flickr,

Now as I type this, it is thundering outside and I love it.  As most of you know, I just love weather and particular severe weather.  Do not get me wrong, I do not want anyone hurt, or have their property damaged but I have always been fascinated with severe storms.  This year may be an active  year.  I turned on the television to the weather channel last night and they said that in January there had been 75 tornadoes in the United States and February has had 90 of them.  So far, we in Oklahoma have not had any yet but the fact that we have had a very bad ice storm with lightning and thunder, and now we are having another one, it looks as though it may be active.  I have several friends that likely will not want to hear this information as they have been victims of tornadoes in the past.  As many of you know here in Oklahoma City we have had many large tornadoes including a massive one in 1999 that destroyed thousands of homes.  Lets hope we do not have anything like that.

I am typing this message using the Flock browser and really enjoying all the cool features.  If you are into social networks, you will love this program.  It has a built in blogging program, as well as a Facebook interface.  It also has direct connection to Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter.  We cannot forget Twitter.  I must admit that I am addicted to Twitter.  It is so fun to use by text messaging on my cell phone.  I am amazed how hard it is to get people here in Oklahoma to try it while the rest of the world uses it daily.  I like the way Twitter automatically updates my Facebook status when ever I send a “Tweet”, or message using my cell phone.  I like being able to just read the messages when I am at work on my cell phone.  Okay, I will shut up and let it go.

Those of you that are ham radio operators that follow our Del City Amateur Radio page may be asking what happened to it and the repeaters.  Last Monday, February 5th, I got tired of listening to the hum coming out of the 443.3 repeater as the WIN System would transmit.  I turned it off and then my dad turned off the 145.25 repeater the following day.  I asked him if he would mind if I turned them off for good.  I am tired of the repeaters and we have had a good run.  He understood and said he does not mind.  He does want to hold off on getting rid of the repeaters out right and giving up the coordination.  I wanted to turn them off for good but he is not completely convinced yet.  One thing is for sure, the IRLP is gone for good.  In fact, I have already formatted the 8440 node that was the WIN System. I think that we have had a good run for six years but my dad has put literally thousands of dollars into it when he has not even been able to use the repeaters.  I am not saying the Del City Amateur Radio Club is gone but definitely on hold and possibly gone.  In my opinion it has outlived its time.  I plan on using that node 8440 computer as a media center computer for our music, and picture source for the XBox 360.  I did take the web site down.

I have noticed quite a while back that Oklahoma City’s ham radio culture is vehemently opposed to Internet linking.  I have found that every six months or so, you get a new group of new ham radio operators that come along and think it is really cool for short time, then they meet other hams that are opposed to it, and they dwindle away.  To be quite honest, I do not enjoy it that much myself.    I like to listen more than talk on it.  With my busy life with school, work, and family, I do not have time to be maintaining repeaters that I do not even use.  I think that a huge debt of gratitude is owed to my dad for all he has contributed to this experiment.  My dad, W5QO has forgotten more about electronics and radio than I will ever know.  It may have been my idea to try IRLP, but my dad is the one that financially and technically kept this system going for six years.  He is the true backbone and the trustee of our club.  I also owe a lot to my cousin, Larry, KD5MAF has also contributed a lot in terms of technical support and financial aid.  Again, the repeaters are not gauranteed to be gone forever, that will depend on my dad.

I think that just about covers the events of the day.  I will post more as it comes available.  I am really enjoying the thunderstorm moving through.

Paul, K5GLH

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Tags: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, Flock, ham radio, Del City Amateur Radio Club, IRLP, WIN System, XBox 360, thunderstorm, ice storm, leaky roof, K5GLH, W5QO, KD5MAF